This week at the Prairie Grain Development Committee (PGDC) meetings in Winnipeg, the Canadian Plant Technology Agency (CPTA) announced it would be launching a pilot program to test how the Seed Variety Use Agreement will work in the real world.
"We've considered a number of models," said CPTA Executive Director Lorne Hadley. "A couple years ago, the Grains Roundtable committee settled on two models. One was this model, which is sometimes referred to as a trailing royalty model. The other was an end point royalty. The facts are that Canada hasn't used anything close to what we're talking about in terms of a contract model with modern communication techniques, so the pilot is to be part of piloting a prototype that uses this technology and then we'll have the information to compare it as to how effective it is in comparison to the other model, which was an end point royalty."
It was also announced that to provide transparency, the Canadian Seed Trade Association (CSTA) has formed a working group with producer and industry representation.
CPTA’s pilot program will introduce a Seed Variety Use Agreement system for a limited number of seed varieties sold for planting beginning this spring.
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